Knitterly Dilemmas or Decisions, Decisions, Decisions

My least favorite thing about knitting: So much to knit, so little time!

I am constantly trying to decide what to knit, when and with what yarn. There are always so many more things that I want to knit than I will ever have time to knit them in.

For example, right now I just finished Daphne and Delilah and Monster Chunks for my niece and nephew. Now I want to knit something for myself again.

Here are just a few of things I want to make myself right now: Berry and Bramble Cardigan, Girl Friday cardigan, and Owls sweater. I had a few others in the running, but have narrowed it down to these top three. The Berry and Bramble Cardigan is really more of a vest and I thought it would be perfect over a long-sleeve tee for much of the warm Texas fall and winter. However, we've had colder than usual fall weather so I'm tempted to knit something warmer like a long-sleeve cardigan. I then fell in love with Girl Friday. She is a long-sleeve cardigan with a lacey shell-like stitch pattern and a fun shawl collar. My only concern with this one: she's knit in pieces and then sewn together. I've actually never done a sweater that way. I've always done ones with raglan sleeves and most have been knit in the round. Not sure if the seaming would be good for me or a big suck of my knitting time. Owls is probably the least practical for Texas but I love the adorable owls and with the chilly weather (okay so it's only 50s and 60s) I'm still tempted to make something warm and snuggly. So that's dilemma number one. I'm pretty sure I will do the Berry and Bramble first since I have yarn for it already. We will see how the swatching goes and go from there.

Oh yeah, and I also picked out the book and lovely yarn to make the Peacock Tail and Leaf Scarf LAST CHRISTMAS and still haven't even swatched for it. I think this will be a wonderful lightweight scarf that I can get some good use of even here in Texas. The project is definitely much more complex than any lace pattern I've done so far which will be a fun challenge, but probably a slower knit. As it's already October, this one must be knit soon.

Unfortunately, (or fortunately, it depends on how you view it,) I don't JUST want to knit for myself. I also want to knit for my boys. I'm still debating whether or not I want to bite off making them Christmas sweaters or vests. Last year I bought this lovely pattern. I love both the shawl collar sweater and the vest. But these are made with DK weight yarn with lots of cables. This is NOT a small commitment of knitting time. This is a major undertaking.

In other boy knitting news, J has just requested a yellow sweater. We were looking at paint color cards in Lowes the other night. I want to paint my dining room (Valspar #5002-5C Lyndhurst Duchess Blue), my guest bedroom (Valspar #5001-5A Lament Blue) and my half bathroom (some shade of light green). J picked out a LOT of bright yellow paint cards and then informed me that he wanted a yellow sweater. Being a knitting mom who LOVES to see her boys in her handknits--especially the ones they WANT to wear said "okay." Now to decide what sweater to knit. I just saw this cute one from knitty. Another sweater I've always considered making for the boys is the Drive-Thru by Wendy Bernard. I'm torn. I think the first one, Sherwood, would look great in a bright yellow and I would enjoy the extra challenge of all those cables, but again am a little concerned about the time this one would take with ALL THOSE CABLES. Drive Thru's nickname is "the Quicko, Cheapo" and, well, I enjoy quick inexpensive knits. Hmmm...

In other knitterly conundrums, back before N was born the lovely Julie of Fricknits gave me a skein of Socks That Rock (mediumweight) to make a Baby Surprise Jacket for N. Well, shockingly, I never got a chance to knit one for him before he was born. Then Cheryl of Yarn Bee sent him one as a gift and I never knit one at all. Now N is WAY too big for a BSJ and I have no interest in making one as a baby gift so I'm trying to decide how to best use this lovely skein of yarn. The colorway, Bella Coola, is a mix of blues and greens. They are generally more muted colors. I was playing around on Ravelry and found a lot of fun patterns that use one skein of mediumweight STR. They include cute little girl baby sweaters like Baby Mine and February Baby Sweater. I could make one of these for my newest niece Isla. I've never done a Elizabeth Zimmermann pattern and thus would enjoy trying the February Baby Sweater. However, I'm not sure if this colorway full of blues and greens would work best for these little baby girl sweaters. Other options include fun little accessories for me like the Ishbel shawlette or the monkey cowl or the mermaid gloves. As much fun as these might be to knit, I'm not sure if I'd wear any of them. I'm not sure if I'm a shawlette kind of gal. I might wear a cowl, but I'm pretty sure I will not wear fingerless gloves even if the mermaid gloves are LOVELY. Another option is the ever popular Chevron scarf although that would require me to buy a second skein of STR in a different colorway and that would open a whole other can o' knitterly worms.

And, of course, I am still trying to find time to knit all of the adorable Rebecca Danger softie patterns I bought and I want to make a few more of her free pattern Monster Chunks. Oh and I promised B that I would knit him something, a big man-size knit in something really exciting like stockinette, and my sister wants a Slanting Gretel Tee and I still want to try my hand at socks at some point and mittens too and I would love a fair isle sweater for me and maybe two for the boys and... well, there just aren't enough hours in the day. What's a knitter to do?